This invention is concerned with diaper systems and, more specifically with incontinence pants for elderly men and women who suffer from uncontrolled bladder and bowel discharge.
It has been the custom to provide geriatric patients with a variety of undergarments to collect the urine and fecal matter that results from the uncontrolled discharge of the bladder and the bowels. These garments have primarily attempted to preclude the passage of the human waste matter through to the outer clothes, without any effective way to prevent their being bulky, obvious to an observer and irritating to the sensitive skin of an elderly person. Most prior art has attempted to utilize devices which snap into position about the waist and have some sort of a fluid impervious outer sheet of material which contacts the skin at the waist and around the legs. These types of incontinence garments suffer from two major disadvantages. Because they must be drawn tightly about the legs to prevent leakage, they prevent air from passing easily through, essentially preventing the legs and genital area that is covered from breathing. Secondly, the skin of geriatric patients tends to be extremely sensitive and susceptible to sores from minimal abrasive contact. Incontinence pants of the type described have this effect.
Other types of garments have attempted to solve the problem by using absorbent pads that were somehow fastened to the inside of the supporting garment. One approach inserts the pad into a pair of pockets on opposing sides of the supporting garment. This has proven unsatisfactory, however, because the absorbent pad is not securely fastened to prevent its bunching up and either becoming uncomfortable for the wearer or nonfunctional for its original intended purpose. To remedy this deficiency another method utilizes zippers to fasten the absorbent pad or liner to the supporting garment. The zippers, however, also proved unsatisfactory since they can catch the skin and eventually induce a sore which causes some degree of bleeding. Various other absorbent pad retainers have been tried in attempts to solve this problem. All generally suffered from the problem of either irritating the skin of the wearer or permitting the absorbent pad to bunch up, thereby minimizing their protective worth.
Alternately, the use of rubber pants on patients or rubber liner sheets on beds cause the skin of elderly patients to become irritated or create bed sores from excessive moisture retention next to the skin.
The foregoing problems are solved in the incontinence pants of the present design by providing in a supporting garment a diaper retaining device that has two flaps or bands of cloth material fastened to the supporting garment and fastenable through the diaper via gripper snaps to retain the diaper loosely and yet securely in place resistant to fluid runoff and fecal matter escape while still giving ample coverage of the rectal area and maximum protection to the wearer.